Tag: Detroit Rock City

Kiss – ‘Off the Soundboard: Poughkeepsie, NY Mid-Hudson Civic Arena, November 28, 1984’ (2023) – Album Review

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Kiss has been killing it with live releases and the ‘Off the Soundboard’ Series. It was a brilliant idea for them to take control of their live shows and rather than not make any money with all the bootlegs out there, but to release their own bootleg versions of these shows. This is the 5th one I believe and might be one of the cooler ones they’ve done. It was recorded in Poughkeepsie, NY on November 28, 1984 at the Mid-Hudson Civic Arena. Wait, this is their 5th one, which means there are still 2 I haven’t reviewed yet. I need to get on that. Well, back to this. What makes this one so special? It is because the guitarists on the album is Mark St. John. The band at the time also had original members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley as well as Peter Criss’ replacement Eric Carr on drums. Now, by this time, Eric is considered a regular and not the new guy anymore. And one of the nicest guys ever.

Mark was hired after they let Vinnie Vincent go because they didn’t feel he deserved the contract that Vinnie thought he deserved and thank goodness they didn’t. Mark recorded the guitars on the ‘Animalize’ album and immediately let the world know this was not the same old Kiss. And with these Kiss songs played live, Mark adds his own flair and isn’t out there to copy anybodies parts. Nope, not at all. This show is Mark doing it his way.

Sadly, Mark had developed reactive arthritis which caused his hands and arms to swell making playing very difficult. He went out on tour with the band and the band also brought along Bruce Kulick to be the back-up guitarist if Mark couldn’t play. It turned out that Mark was only able to play on 3 of the Kiss shows and this was one of them. That’s right, they actually have the recording of one of the shows with Mark and that is what makes this set so cool. I already have a bootleg from this tour, but my show has Bruce on it. I also saw this tour and that show had Bruce in it. That is why I think this set is so freaking cool. Great job Kiss!!

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Kiss – ‘Gods of Thunder: The Legendary Concert Broadcast – Sao Paulo, August 27, 1994’ – Album Review (The Bootleg Series)

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In my quest for bootlegs, another one popped up at a record show here in Charlotte. This one was fairly new as it was released in 2020 and it was still sealed. It is simply called ‘Gods of Thunder”. The show is only a partial show from the Monsters of Rock show in Sao Paulo, Brazil on August 27, 1994. That setlist had 22 tracks and this is a streamlined vinyl with only 10 tracks and not even sure these are the best 10 tracks. But the good news is, they did omit “Rock & Roll All Nite” which we didn’t really need to have another live version of that as I have a million of it already.

I’m not sure what they were going for with the cover but I am sure with the lightning and cloudy skies is the God of Thunder part, but what is with the chess board at the bottom and the poorly cropped faces on the cover. That looks about as shitty of job that I could do. The bright side is, they at least got the right people as that would’ve been the line-up in 1994. The back cover is the same scene minus the heads and the track list instead. The cool thing about it is the beautiful blue vinyl. I like that a lot. And as far as sound, it is from a radio broadcast, so the sound is fantastic. There is no denying it is a live show as nothing has been done to fix the imperfections, which is what we like about the bootlegs.

SIDE 1:

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Kiss – ‘Destroyer: 45th Anniversary 2-LP Deluxe Edition (Colored Vinyl) (2021) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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With the album ‘Alive’ in 1975, Kiss finally broke through and were on their ways to be Rock Gods!! But their next album needed to make a statement. It needed to capture the band like none of their other albums had been able to do. Famed record producer, Bob Ezrin, was brought in to man the boards all based on the work he was doing with Alice Cooper. Kiss needed that same energy and success. And did Bob deliver? Oh hell yeah he did!! ‘Destroyer’ was released on March 15, 1976 and with songs like “Beth”, ‘Detroit Rock City” and “Shout it Out Loud”, Kiss was on top. They had made it! A now platinum selling artist, a massive touring act and they were starting to reach heights they only dreamed about. At first thought, the album was slow out of the gate until “Beth” was played on the radio…it was the B-Side to “Detroit Rock City” and then Bam!! Everything changed. To celebrate this pivotal album, Kiss delivered the 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition Box Set which we’ve already reviewed and it is jammed pack with goodness. This time we have the 2-LP Deluxe Edition Colored Vinyl which we are discussing. It isn’t as jammed pack but it is still pretty great for what it is.

One thing I really like about this set is the gatefold. It is stunning. When you open up the gatefold and there are the members of Kiss in full gear on their choppers, you get excited. It is really cool.

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Kiss – ‘Destroyer: 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition’ (2021) – Box Set Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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With the album ‘Alive’ in 1975, Kiss finally broke through and were on their ways to be Rock Gods!! But their next album needed to make a statement. It needed to capture the band like none of their other albums had been able to do. Famed record producer, Bob Ezrin, was brought in to man the boards all based on the work he was doing with Alice Cooper. Kiss needed that same energy and success. And did Bob deliver? Oh hell yeah he did!! ‘Destroyer’ was released on March 15, 1976 and with songs like “Beth”, ‘Detroit Rock City” and “Shout it Out Loud”, Kiss was on top. They had made it! A now platinum selling artist, a massive touring act and they were starting to reach heights they only dreamed about. At first thought, the album was slow out of the gate until “Beth” was played on the radio…it was the B-Side to “Detroit Rock City” and then Bam!! Everything changed. To celebrate this pivotal album, Kiss delivered the 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition Box Set and it is jammed pack with goodness. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have been paying attention to other band’s box sets and now they know how to put one of these together and it is stellar…mostly.

It is jammed pack with 4 discs of music. A remastered edition of the main album; 2 CDs of demos, rarities, outtakes and remixes as well as 1 Live CDs chock full of goodness from the Paris show on May 22, 1976. And you also get a Blu-Ray Audio of the main album and I can’t wait to turn this baby on in surround sound and hear all that Bob put in to these songs. But that is not all, not by a long shot. The box set is packed with an 68-page book, posters, stickers, photo cards and all sorts of information about the band…don’t believe me, look at the sticker from the front of the box set…

So sit back and let’s go through the box set in detail with a lot of pictures to show you the beauty of this set.

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Kiss – Rock the Nation 2004 World Tour: Instant Live (Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Charlotte, NC 7/28/04 (2004) – Album (The Kiss Review Series)

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Back on the Rock the Nation Tour in 2004, Kiss offered the Instant Live CDs. Basically, after the show was over, they burned the show to 2 CDs and sold them so you could instantly walk home with the show in your pocket. The band worked with Live Nation who handled all the recording and distribution of the CDs. Now, not every show on this tour was recorded and that was due to two reasons. 1) The arena was not owned / promoted by Clear Channel Entertainment and 2) there were technical difficulties at the show. Which that would suck if you were expecting a copy.

There are about 32 different shows recorded and this is the first one I’ve ever seen out in the wild, so I bought it. And lucky for me, it was the Charlotte show from Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre in Charlotte, NC which is the town where I live (or just outside of it anyway). The show was from July 28, 2004. Now, only 31 left to get…joking. I don’t think I will go for all of them although that would be fun. However, if I run across any in the wild, I’ll buy them.

The packaging is simple and the same for every city. No setlist is included as each city might be slightly different. If you want the setlist, they give you website to go and download. However, that site doesn’t seem to exist anymore. The way to tell them apart was by a clear sticker with the city, venue and date of the show as seen on the cover at the top of the post. The band was Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons as you’d expect and then Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer who had taken over for Peter Criss on this tour and is still with the band as is Tommy.

The setlist isn’t printed in it so I found it and have listed it below…

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Kiss – ‘Off the Soundboard: Live in Virginia Beach July 25, 2004’ – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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Kiss has finally realized they can make money on live Bootleg type albums just like everyone else has been doing out in the will. They are finally releasing their own Bootleg Series called “Off the Soundboard”. First up for them was the show from Tokyo 2001 which had Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Eric Singer. This time around they are going with the line-up of Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer. The show is Virginia Beach from July 25, 2004. This tour was the Rock the Nation Tour and one I didn’t see.

When I saw this was being released, I was excited at first as there were a handful of songs that haven’t been on all the tours so it is always great to get live versions when you can. The ones I was excited about were “Unholy”, “King of the Night Time World”, “Got to Choose” and “I Want You”. Their previous release was absolutely perfect. This one turns out, not so much…at least to me. They did maintain the same bootleg feel to the packaging as it is real simple cardboard box feel with stamped looking markings like the bootlegs of old. I do love the simplicity (even if it is a little flimsy).

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Kiss – “Beth” – 7″ Single (The Kiss Review Series)

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I’m always out searching for Kiss music that I don’t have on vinyl and right now that is mostly singles. The latest time I was out digging, I came across a 7″ Single for the song “Beth” off their 1976 classic ‘Destroyer’. The original single for this album was “Detroit Rock City” as the A-Side and “Beth” as the B-Side. When that went out to the radio stations, the DJ’s ended playing “Beth” which quickly became the most requested songs on a lot of stations.

After that, the decision was made to reissue the single with “Beth” as the A-Side and “Detroit Rock City” as the B-Side. That is the copy I have. It was released in August 1976. Now, my version I found doesn’t have a picture sleeve as shown as the header. I used that to make the post more enticing. My version actually just came in a plain white sleeve but the original at least would’ve had the Casablanca Sleeve that would’ve looked something like the above picture…If I find any singles out there with that sleeve I will buy it (regardless if it is Kiss or not just so I have the correct one).

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Kiss – ‘End of the Road: In Allentown 2020’ – Blu-Ray Review (Bootleg Series)

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I was out a Record Show and I found a table that had a lot of Kiss memorabilia but nothing much I really wanted as I generally stick to the music. I did find something I didn’t realize existed and that was Kiss Blu-Ray Bootlegs. This guy was selling a lot of them. I came back to the table and looked again and decided, you know, I want to try it out. When he then offered that I could get two for $15, I jumped at the chance. $15 was worth the risk. So I grabbed one from the End of the Road tour and one from the 40th Anniversary Tour as I saw both those tours, just not these shows.

So, first up we are going to go the most recent which is the End of the Road Tour and this show was filmed at the PPL Center in Allentown, PA on February 4th, 2020 just a month before COVID shut the whole touring scene down. Kiss was a full year in to the tour at this point and in fine form.

I have to say the video quality is much better than I expected. It is supposed to be a Pro-Shot video and although some of the camera angles sucked at times as they got washed out with the colors in the lights, overall it was pretty cool. The shots from the front of the stage were perfectly clear and killer you still got some shots that were muted by the lights some blurriness as the cameras couldn’t focus fast enough. But for $7.50 a piece, pretty darn acceptable.

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Ace Frehley – American Tour 2021 (Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre, October 7, 2021) – Concert Review

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I have been a huge Ace Frehley fan since I was probably 8 years old. He was my very first guitar hero. I had only seen him play with Kiss and I have never seen him love as just Ace Frehley. When I saw he was opening for Alice Cooper, I couldn’t click the purchase ticket button fast enough. This was also the first concert I had attended since Covid began around 19 months ago so it was even more exciting.

The concert began at 7:30pm on October 7, 2021. We arrived in plenty of time because I was damn well sure going to make it to see the opening act, because, well, as was the opening act. We stand in line to get stamped with proof of vaccination (or proof of negative covid test) and then go in line again to go through the metal detector and all good so far. I don’t know why I said “so far”, because we ran in to ZERO issues all night. It was supposed to rain…None! The weather was a little chilly, but felt great. We hit the restrooms (TMI) and then went and bought some bottled water…except…they don’t sell bottled water anymore…WHAT!!! Nope. It is now in a can…huh???

Yes, Liquid Death is the name of the Water!! I’ve seen it all now.

Yes, they sell water in a can now so I guess non-drinkers don’t get harassed for not drinking as it looks like a beer can. I have to admit, it looks pretty damn cool for water. We then hit the merch table and there were a ton of Alice stuff and only a little Ace, but I saw Alice 3 years ago almost to the day, so I went with the Ace Shirt. They were already out of XL size, so I went 2XL and I hope it shrinks…

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Kiss – ‘Kissworld: The Best of Kiss’ (2017) – Album Review (The Kiss Review Series)

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I know what you are thinking.  Why do we need another Kiss Greatest Hits compilation?  Honestly, we really don’t.  We have tons already and there is nothing new on here that the real fan doesn’t already have.  So Why?  Well, easy.  Kiss was touring their End of the Road tour and they wanted product out there that the casual fan or new fan that they get from all the press can run out and grab.  Simple!

But is this something worth getting?  As a casual fan…Maybe, but maybe not as well as there are better compilations out there.  As the Hard Core Fan….Well, I did buy it if that tells you anything.  I had to buy it because I didn’t have it in my ever growing collection.  Plus, it is so pretty.  Yes, pretty.  I bought the Special Edition double LP with Yellow/Red Splatter vinyl.

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The packaging is a gatefold with the Group photo on the front and the track listing on the back such as below…

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